The ‘one size fits all’ approach across product development is no longer suitable for today’s data centre landscape as housing, connecting, powering, cooling and managing systems in different environments for different applications becomes increasingly ‘niche’. How can preconfigured cabinets help?
Development of physical infrastructure solutions is fragmenting, along with the definition of the data centre. In recent years, many sub-definitions have come into being, from hyperscale and enterprise to modular, edge and micro data centres. Each of these has emerged from new requirements, derived from how we collect, use and disseminate data. The needs of these various ‘sub-species’ are becoming more diverse and there is a growing need to accommodate everything from purpose-built white space to locating compute assets in an automated factory and everything in between and beyond.
Cabinets pre-fitted with power, connectivity, cooling and management components before shipping have been in the wings of data centre solution portfolios for some years. This approach may have seemed costly when physical infrastructure requirements were less diverse, and in many cases less specialized. However, recent developments such as Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence have resulted in a greater need for compute functions at the ‘Edge’, where preconfigured solutions can make a vital contribution.
Many benefits of preconfigured cabinets are related to deployment and commissioning of services. This often requires multiple skills: electrical contractors, cabling engineers, IT personnel, HVAC engineers and more. As compute services are moved out to the ‘Edge’, locations become less installation-friendly. In this case, it makes sense to carry out as much of this work as possible at a production or pre-staging facility, where personnel, tools and equipment are readily available. Preconfigured solutions make it possible to carry out work that can be done better, at a lower cost, away from the customer site before shipment. This includes configuring services to communicate with one another, physical installation, ensuring components consume as little space as possible and ensuring control and communication cables are dressed unobtrusively. On-site work is minimised and deskilled, reducing installation costs – and time.
The real value of preconfigured cabinets is in communication between infrastructure elements. The fire suppression system, for example, can communicate with the cabinet’s PDUs, cooling and locking systems to provide a more effective multi –layered fire response.
Choosing a solution
Preconfigured cabinets must suit different environments in which edge computing is a requirement, isolating IT assets from the outside environment – and vice-versa. In office spaces, for example, solutions must be aesthetically aligned with the room. In manufacturing facilities cabinets must protect assets from chemicals, contaminants and power fluctuations. Outdoors, protection from the elements and unwanted human interference is required.
At the Edge, IT assets often need to be located in places that were not designed to house them. Making such environments fit for purpose is usually expensive. As many of these locations are temporary or short term, realising an ROI may often prove difficult. Preconfigured cabinets can be delivered to site prebuilt with all of the attributes of a traditional data centre or server room.
When designed and deployed correctly, cabinets and physical infrastructure are far less obtrusive to the building. Building modifications are minimised and in many cases eliminated – in a leased location these benefits are doubled when the lease ends and the facility has to be returned to its original state. This scope is likely to increase as IoT and technologies like 5G open up opportunities for new applications that require local compute capabilities.
As infrastructure services are integrated into the cabinet this also means that they become redeployable assets, enabling a greater ROI; components such as cabling and HVAC plant, often disposed of at the end of a lease, are easily moved as part of the cabinet to a new location.
From a design point of view, the concept of preconfigured cabinets also makes life far easier: Defined configurations for switch, compute and cabling distribution cabinets enable a ‘building block’ approach. Lengths for inter-cabinet truck cables, for example, are known from the outset. This improves precision, deployment times and adherence to best practices.
Whilst preconfigured cabinets may bring limited value to purpose built white space, at the Edge they solve several very real challenges whilst reducing costs. Cabinets pre-fitted with connectivity infrastructure, power distribution, cable management and raceway, cooling, fire suppression and rack monitoring functionality – all based on client-specific IT needs – enable organizations to deploy services rapidly, using a single physical infrastructure platform. This incorporates multiple services, without having to consider interoperability, working with multiple vendors and managing concurrent installation works, often in sensitive environments.
Like to know more? Get in touch with Reichle & De-Massari UK Ltd
+44 (0) 203 693 7595
